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New Toronto centre hopes to lead the way in music and medicine research

It has been called a window to the soul, the &ldquo;brandy of the damned&rdquo; and, most famously, the food of love.Now scientists believe music may also be an important form of medicine.

Music therapist Junko Shimomura leads Buddy's Glee Club participants during the weekly Monday afternoon gathering at Baycrest, a seniors' community in North York. Some members of the group were in Amy Clements-Cortes' study to evaluate the impact of music on seniors' health and cognitive impairments. (RICK MADONIK / TORONTO STAR) | Order this photo

Junko Shimomura, music therapist, leads Buddy's Glee Club participants during the weekly Monday afternoon gathering at Baycrest, a senior's community in North York. Some members of the group were in Amy Clements-Cortes' study to evaluate the impact of music on seniors' health and cognitive impairments. (RICK MADONIK / TORONTO STAR) | Order this photo

By Andrea GordonStaff Reporter

Fri., Dec. 16, 2011

It has been called a window to the soul, the “brandy of the damned” and, most famously, the food of love.

Now scientists believe music may also be an important form of medicine. And next year, Toronto could be at the forefront of this emerging field with the launch of a new centre on music and health research.

The proposed centre, based at University of Toronto, would bring together experts on the cutting edge of using music to improve such medical conditions as strokes, Alzheimer’s, chronic pain and Parkinson’s. While music has long been recognized as an effective form of therapy, the notion of harnessing song, sound frequencies and rhythm as another tool in treating physical ailments is a much newer domain.

A draft proposal released last week said the new Music and Health Research Collaboratory would connect experts in music, neuroscience, medicine and psychology from universities across southern Ontario and at least half a dozen GTA hospitals.

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“I’m pretty excited about this,” says Don McLean, dean of U of T’s faculty of music. “In the last month, all the pennies have started to drop.”

He said the project will bring existing “pockets of excellence” around the province under one umbrella and create a movement “that has the potential to move quickly to international prominence.”

The prospect of unleashing music as medicine is critical at a time of rising health care costs, an aging population and growing need for palliative care, he notes.

The healing power of music has drawn attention recently, thanks to ABC 20/20’s footage of U.S. congresswoman’s Gabrielle Giffords’ rehabilitation after being shot in the head last January. The incident left her unable to speak or move her right side.

Music therapists used songs as simple as “Yankoo Doodle” to help Giffords retrieve words from the many other areas of the brain that are activated by music. Songs also motivated her to move her right arm.

Researchers at the new Toronto centre would be among those at the forefront of discovering the science that explains how and why these kinds of interventions work. They would also work to uncover the musical potential for treating other diseases and conditions.

It would represent a unique collaboration in Canada, says Lee Bartel, associate dean of research with U of T’s faculty of music and author of the draft proposal.

Similar initiatives exist in Cleveland at the Center for Music and Medicine at the University Hospitals Neurological Institute and at Beth Israel Medical Center’s six-year-old Louis Armstrong Center for Music and Medicine in New York.

However, those are primarily focused on music therapy, while the Toronto centre would have a more medical thrust.

Other focus areas will include: teaching, learning and performing music; music therapy; and music in society and culture.

Bartel, a professor who has studied the way music affects sleep and stress, has dreamed of this type of centre for years. He created a potential framework six years ago. But it wasn’t until McLean became dean last year that it started to become reality. The pair has been putting the pieces in place over the past 10 months.

In November, they hosted two evenings of presentations by researchers across southern Ontario who would be prime candidates for joining the network. The sessions attracted more than 200 people from the medical and music fields as well as potential donors.

Among them was Takako Fujioka, whose research has included how rhythmic sounds affect the brain and can be used to help stroke patients regain movement.

The emergence of a centre is timely and would provide a boost for the basic science required to uncover these new ways of treating diseases and conditions, says Fujioka, scientific associate at the Rotman Research Institute, which is part of Baycrest centre for seniors in Toronto.

“You can collect evidence, but still that’s not enough,” she says. “You need to understand why and how. We need an interdisciplinary, collective approach.”

Networking and collaboration are not the only important benefits of joining forces. It also lays the groundwork for more funding.

“Once you build a research environment that has this much excitement, people start to invest,” says McLean.

“They are pushing the envelope in getting us together, which is fantastic,” says Amy Clements-Cortes, senior music therapist at Baycrest and assistant professor at the University of Windsor.

Clements-Cortes has conducted studies on the use of music in palliative care and in treating Alzheimer’s and other cognitive impairments.

McLean, who spent 22 years at McGill University in Montreal, came to Toronto with a notion that there was a huge opportunity for music and health.

Some of the partners for the proposed centre have already formed a research cluster on medicine and aging. This week, the group was shortlisted for a $1-million grant from Connaught Global Challenge Fund to help fund the project, which would explore such topics as using rhythm, vibration and low frequency sound to affect brain waves and treat Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, stroke and pain.

McLean and Bartel have started the search for a director of the new Music and Health Research Collaboratory, which will be located in the faculty of music building. The goal is to complete a final proposal and sign partners by the beginning of the 2012 academic year.

Sounds of study

Here is some of the research presented at sessions held last month to generate interest in the proposed Music and Health Research Collaboratory at University of Toronto:

• Music therapist Heidi Ahonen of Wilfrid Laurier University studied the impact of low frequency sound on patients with Parkinson’s and found it could reduce symptoms.

• Researchers at Mount Sinai Hospital’s Wasser pain clinic are exploring how music can induce sleep in those with fibromyalgia and help alleviate pain.

• Takako Fujioka and Bernhard Ross of Baycrest’s Rotman Research Institute are investigating how music and specifically rhythm, can stimulate the brains of those recovering from strokes to help them regain movement.

• Amy Clements-Cortes, senior music therapist at Baycrest, has studied how music can be used in palliative care, to improve communication in patients with Alzheimer’s and dementia, and how sing-alongs can affect the well-being of seniors.

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